pages Micro-Fiction Archives

Inperpetuity

Issue No. 14 ~ July, 1998

The oncoming car wouldn’t stop. Didn’t the driver see me standing in the middle of the road? At any moment, I kept telling myself, he would notice me and swerve. But he didn’t. Closer and closer came the headlights. My eyes squeezed shut to block …

Undermusic

Issue No. 14 ~ July, 1998

I think it’s too intricate for its own good. But what the hell am I gonna do about it? I mean, no plan that would work would be simple enough to pull off, would it? I don’t know. All I do know is that I’ve …

Blessed Silence

Issue No. 13 ~ June, 1998

The man really loved his wife. If only she would stop talking. She never shut up. Never said anything he wanted to hear. She began to talk non-stop about inanimate objects. Then she started to talk to the objects. Especially her miniatures! She started building …

Fogisle

Issue No. 13 ~ June, 1998

The walls of this fog-bound mansion are wet, dripping moss encrusted with dew. There is too much furniture, too many occasional tables — as though some obsessed interior decorator glanced around these uneven, multi-cornered cliffs and pronounced: “Spruce. Everything spruce!” Then commanded her staff to …

To a Cockroach on an Antique Cocktail Table

Issue No. 13 ~ June, 1998

I see you there, Beauty, mahogany oval, drop leaf wings, spindle legs, every joint so smoothly tongued and grooved you could be all one piece. I wonder that you have no claws, not that it matters. Grandma is eighty-six and nearly blind. Craftsmanship is not …

Professional Care Givers

Issue No. 13 ~ June, 1998

Every time we argue, Arnell and I eat bad. It’s been that way for years. We’re mixed up trying to straighten out. We’re on a new program. It doesn’t really matter what kind of program, does it? I mean, it could be dietary or medication, …

Midnight Dancer

Issue No. 13 ~ June, 1998

At midnight the guitarist began playing music in a room in his home that had been cleared of any furniture so that the acoustical environment would be ideal. The lights in the room had not been turned on. After performing the music for a short …

Avarice

Issue No. 12 ~ May, 1998

A guy, a girl, and seven unopened bottles of water.